Dancing in the Car
by livyroro
Summary: One shot of Tris and Tobias meeting for the first time in a funny circumstance! AU


**A/N:** This is just a little idea I thought of last night! I don't own Taylor's song Shake It Off; the few lines that are in this aren't mine.

Zeke's car pulled up in front of the building, stopping just where Tobias was standing. It had been a long day at work, and Tobias was eager to get away from the tall, stuffy tower and suit-clad people that filled it.

Zeke honked his horn once as Tobias walked to his car. Rolling his eyes, Tobias popped open the door and ducked his head before sitting down. He'd hit his forehead on Zeke's car more times than he could count. For such a fancy sports car, it didn't have much room in the height department.

"Are you ready to have some fun?" Zeke asked, speeding out of the parking lot.

Tobias shrugged off his suit jacket and threw it in the back seat. Normally, he would scoff at a comment like that, but today his reply was: "Hell yeah."

Surprised, Zeke laughed and took an arm off the steering wheel to clap Tobias on the back, before groping around on the floor and handing him a half-full bottle of vodka. "Drink up!"

Tobias took a small swig-he couldn't get too drunk because he had an early meeting tomorrow-before setting the bottle down at his feet. He was sure there would be plenty of alcohol where they were going, so he didn't need to get hammered before they even got to the club.

As Zeke turned on to the highway with dizzying speed, the sun was burning golden low in the sky. Tobias opened the compartment by his knees and pulled out the sunglasses that he kept in Zeke's car, sliding them on. He took of his tie and threw that in the back seat along with his jacket, and undid the top button of his shirt.

It was a hot day. The air blowing cold from the windows kept Zeke and Tobias cool, until they hit the usual evening traffic around exit seven.

Zeke rested his head on the steering wheel with a sigh, and Tobias rolled up his sleeves to try to alleviate some of the searing heat that was building up in the stationary car.

It was quiet, save the occasional horn and low hum of the motor when they managed to move an inch, until they heard loud music coming up from behind them.

Zeke lifted his head in annoyance, "You know, some people just don't know when to turn the music down."

Tobias grunted in agreement, although he didn't really have a problem with people playing loud music in cars. He, for one, found it therapeutic when alone in his car to blast some old rock.

The music from behind slowly got louder as the car playing it got closer. Tobias could now tell that the car was on his right. The right lane experienced a burst of speed, and cars moved forward a good two-cars length. Suddenly, the car playing the music was right beside them.

It was a silver Toyota, a simple four person car. But that wasn't what interested Tobias. In the front seat, there was a girl about his age who was dancing wildly to the beat of what he recognized as that peppy Taylor Swift song.

He couldn't see her face, because her blond hair turned gold by the sun was whipping around as her head bobbed to the beat of the drums. Tobias could barely hold in a laugh, and he felt his stress from the workday just slipping away as he watched the girl dance. Her shoulders shook in time with the bass, making the whole car shake as a result.

Tobias was disappointed when the right lane moved again and the girl went out of view. Zeke, on the other hand, let out a sigh of relief and relaxed against the steering wheel once more.

The traffic was definitely some of the worst Tobias had seen in a while; the club they were headed to was only about twenty minutes away on a normal day, but so far they'd been in the car for an hour and they weren't even halfway there.

A few minutes ago, Zeke put on the radio to the oldies station and was gently tapping his hand on the steering wheel, head bobbing to the beat. In the distance, ahead of them this time, Tobias thought he heard the same relentless beat as before. Zeke turned up the radio, though, and Tobias was left to wonder where that girl was at now, and was she still dancing?

Traffic seemed to lessen in their lane, and they started creeping along at ten miles an hour. "Thank God!" Zeke exclaimed, pressing on the gas enthusiastically.

Over the soft thrum of the Beatles, Tobias was sure he heard the same song as before. Sure enough, it got louder and louder as they approached and yet again Zeke's car stopped next to the girl's. Tobias felt a thrill go through him at the sight of her, and couldn't contain a smile.

Her hair thrashed as before, until the song reached the bridge. She stopped dancing as furiously, though keeping up a good head bob, the young blond sang along loudly, hands doing gestures that correlated with the lyrics.

"Hey, hey, hey! Just think while you've been gettin' down and out about the liars and the dirty, dirty cheats of the world, you could've been gettin' down to _this sick beat_!" The girl punctuated the emphasized words with a flip of her hair.

As she turned slightly, Tobias could finally glimpse her face. All of the sudden, the music was quiet and cars in the far lane moved in slow motion. She was beautiful, big blue eyes sparkling and perfect lips singing in sync with the song.

Tobias was mesmerized.

"My ex man brought his new girlfriend, she's like oh my god, but I'm just gonna shake," the girl said animatedly. "And to the fella over there with the hella good hair, won't you come-" she stopped abruptly.

Tobias didn't realize he'd been staring until she was staring back at him. Her eyes, wide before, were even wider and her hair was messy from all that dancing.

He shook himself out of his trance, and tried to give her his best smirk. "Keep going!" He encouraged, shouting over the loud music.

And he about lost his mind when a blush tinted her perfect cheeks, as she shook her head and reached over to turn the music down.

Tobias persisted, "I'm serious, come on!"

She looked at him, flushed. "I can't if you're watching."

Tobias found himself being uncharacteristically warm towards this girl, who was just a stranger. "Of course you can."

She shook her head again, and before Tobias could think of how to convince her, the right lane sped up again and she was out of sight. He swore under his breath, before sitting back in his seat. He knew Zeke was giving him a look, but he didn't want to indulge him by responding in any way.

By some miracle, Zeke didn't mention the singing girl during the whole ride. Maybe it was the heat or his annoyance caused by the traffic. Whatever it was, Tobias was thankful.

They pulled into the club a lot later than they intended to, and their friends were waiting for them when they got inside. It was dark and the music was pounding, not in a good way, and Tobias wasn't in the mood to "have fun" with random girls after seeing that one girl dance. That girl who he couldn't get out of his mind.

He ordered a drink anyway, and watched from the sides as his friends grinded with their significant others on the dance floor.

He was about to call it a night and leave Zeke a note on the table when he saw a flash of blond hair under a strobe light. Rationally, Tobias knew there were tons of blond girls in the club, but something about the way the hair was flipped reminded him of the girl from the highway, and he couldn't leave knowing he hadn't at least checked.

He made his way through hordes of sloshed dancers until he thought he was in the area where he saw the familiar hair. Looking around, he didn't see her. Tobias backed up, giving the girl more time to show up, until he accepted whoever it was wasn't here anymore, and turned around to head out. His body turned straight into someone, though, and annoyed, Tobias looked down to hastily apologize then get away from all this.

And his breath caught in his throat, because she was standing right in front of him.

She was shorter than he would have thought, barely coming up to his chest, and very thin. Her hair only looked marginally more put together than it had in the car, but Tobias still thought she looked gorgeous.

Her mouth dropped open as she tilted her head up to look at him. She blushed again, and attempted to excuse herself. Tobias caught her arm as gently as he could, and pulled her back. She looked at him expectantly.

"I don't believe we've met properly," he said, and then chided himself for saying something so stupid.

The girl smiled slightly, clearly still embarrassed. "No, we haven't."

She was stubborn, Tobias thought, just like him. "I'm Tobias," his real name bursted out before he could filter it.

"And I'm Tris."

Tris. It was pretty, like her. Tobias ran a hand through his hair. "I have to say, Tris, you're a great dancer."

And her blush was back. "Listen, I'm sorry about that."

Tobias held up his hands, "No need to be sorry. I enjoyed it, actually. You cheered me up."

Tris smiled weakly, but didn't say anything.

"Listen, Tris . . . can we, um . . . can I have your number?"

Whatever she was expecting him to say, it certainly wasn't that. Her eyes widened, mouth agape like it was when he ran into her a minute ago. "You, um, you want my number?" She sounded disbelieving.

"Of course, yeah," Tobias said. "If you don't want to give it to me, that's fine, I just-"

She cut him off, "No, no, um . . . I'd like to." Tris pulled out a small purse and found her phone quickly, handing it out to him. "Put yours in there?"

Tobias nodded and hastily retrieved his phone from his back pocket and handed it to her. They switched their phones back, and Tris smiled shyly up at Tobias.

"Well, um . . . I have to go-meeting tomorrow morning, but I'll call you?" Tobias scratched the back of his neck. He was _so_ off his game. All the suaveness he felt earlier in the car was gone when he was this close to her.

Tris nodded, "Yeah. I'm looking forward to it."

Tobias smiled widely. "Me too."

Reluctantly, he left for home after leaving Zeke a note on the table. The next morning, all through his meeting, he couldn't stop thinking about Tris. As soon as he was out, he called her and they agreed to go to dinner that night.

He took her to a quaint diner off the highway on which they had first seen each other the night before, and as they sipped from chocolate milkshakes and told stories about their childhoods the same song came on, to Tobias's delight and Tris's embarrassment.

Close to their first anniversary, Tobias surprised Tris by taking her rollerskating. As soon as Tris's skate touched the wood, the same song came on, and Tobias reacted by pulling her to him and spinning her around as he danced on skates.

At their wedding, they planned their first dance to be special. At first, it was a cookie cutter waltz and the two gracefully danced across the floor. After about a minute, though, the music stopped suddenly and Tris and Tobias pulled away, both smiling widely. As the opening notes to the song came on, the crowd watching cheered, Tris blushed, and Tobias was taken back to that day three years ago. As the couple shimmied and shook on the dance floor, their friends all joined them and both of them were left thinking that they'd never been happier than in that very moment.

Even years and years later, after Tris and Tobias had been through most of life together, Tris's cheeks would still tint pink when the song came on the oldies station, and Tobias would still be transported back to the highway at sunset, when he first set his eyes on the love of his life.


End file.
